Vehicle transmissions sometimes must be put into a neutral state in order for various service operations to be performed on the vehicle. In a manual transmission, this can be as simple as moving the manual shift lever to the neutral position. In one known manual transmission, a locking mechanism is provided for engaging the manual shift lever and holding or locking the shift lever in the neutral position so as to prevent the shift lever from inadvertently moving out of the neutral position. In automatic transmissions, a particular method and/or arrangement may be needed for the particular transmission that is to be placed into the neutral state.